![\"ccs-62657-0-86486300-1457277934.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-86486300-1457277934.jpg\")
<\/a>\n<\/div>\nIt was on that infamous climb where the ever-chirpy Jan Braai realised his PB was insight. \u201cMy goal was to go sub-three,\u201d he explained. \u201cI thought if we go well we\u2019d do a 02:50-something, historically looking at the B-group times\u2026 But I was hoping \u2013 if all the factors played into our favour \u2013 maybe to get that very elusive thing that starts with a 02:40\u2026\u201d Jan finished in 02:49:00 and was visibly elated. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I will ever do that again,\u201d he said, explaining how the conditions were absolutely perfect for a bike race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a little bit of a head wind toward Cape Point, but for the bigger guys \u2013 like myself \u2013 it just slowed the very light climbers down into the Smitswinkel climb, which gave me a minute or two get the heart rate down\u2026 It was the type of wind that actually plays into your favour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It was on Suikerbossie where ex Dutch pro Mark Vlijm soaked up the view and the atmosphere while waiting for his new wife to catch up. \u201cI heard about the race from a friend. I checked it out and told him that once I\u2019m finished as a pro I would come and ride it. Now I\u2019m here on my honeymoon riding with my wife,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the best organised bike tour I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And, it was on Suikerbossie where rally driver Ashley Haigh-Smith realised that he was ready to tackle the Absa Cape Epic in a week\u2019s time\u2026 by the time he cruised up there on his Trek mountain bike it was well past lunch time and had been a long day for Ashleigh. \u201cI drove the Avis Lead car for the race,\u201d he explained. \u201cGugu (Zulu) drove the commissaire \u2013 we have radios between the two cars and we pretty much have to make sure the road is clear. In the beginning it was pretty slow, but once we got past Misty Cliffs it got quite entertaining,\u201d he says. \u201cThen we both jumped on our mountain bikes and joined some friends for the ride.\u201d What a ride it was for all out there today.<\/p>\n
Events of this magnitude are not without incident, of course. Various medical matters were dealt with on the day, of which 20 cases were admitted to hospital and \u2013 as of 15:00 on the day \u2013 five were considered serious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the sharp end of the field, Clint Hendricks (RoadCover) crossed the finish line of the 39th Cape Town Cycle Tour at around 10 minutes to nine, a long time before a big chunk of the 35 000 riders in the world’s largest individually timed cycle race even started. David Bellairs \u2013 a Director of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[81],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cape-town-cycle-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18601"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"ccs-62657-0-42153300-1457277937.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-42153300-1457277937.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n